Alonso tops second practice in Valencia

The Spanish hero's 1m39.283s heading into the final half hour put him on top by just 0.056 seconds over Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull.

It was a good session for the latter team at a track it had low expectations for. Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber both had spells in front, and held on to second and third at the end, both within 0.144s of Alonso.

Morning pacesetter Nico Rosberg - another man who topped the timing screens for a while - ended up fourth for Mercedes, followed by championship leader Lewis Hamilton the best of the McLarens.

Robert Kubica kept Renault among the frontrunners in sixth, while Felipe Massa took seventh despite missing half an hour in the middle of the session.

The Brazilian spun his Ferrari out of Turn 4 and came to a halt broadside across the circuit, the anti-stall system seemingly failing to react. The session was red-flagged for a while while the stranded Ferrari was retrieved, and it was brought back to the pits in time for Massa to rejoin later on.

Adrian Sutil (Force India), Jenson Button (McLaren) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams) filled the rest of the top ten spots, with Michael Schumacher only 11th for Mercedes.

In another session filled with tyre graining and run-off exploration, other drivers in trouble included Vitaly Petrov - who had a quick spin in his Renault - and Timo Glock, whose Virgin had to be parked trackside after 14 laps.

Pos  Driver       Team                  Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Alonso       Ferrari               1m39.283s            33
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1m39.339s  + 0.056s  27
 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1m39.427s  + 0.144s  29
 4.  Rosberg      Mercedes              1m39.650s  + 0.367s  22
 5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.749s  + 0.466s  24
 6.  Kubica       Renault               1m39.880s  + 0.597s  28
 7.  Massa        Ferrari               1m39.947s  + 0.664s  22
 8.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m40.020s  + 0.737s  30
 9.  Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.029s  + 0.746s  27
10.  Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m40.174s  + 0.891s  33
11.  Schumacher   Mercedes              1m40.287s  + 1.004s  24
12.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  1m40.387s  + 1.104s  33
13.  Petrov       Renault               1m40.618s  + 1.335s  29
14.  Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari        1m40.906s  + 1.623s  34
15.  de la Rosa   Sauber-Ferrari        1m40.945s  + 1.662s  30
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.115s  + 1.832s  35
17.  Hulkenberg   Williams-Cosworth     1m41.371s  + 2.088s  30
18.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.457s  + 2.174s  36
19.  Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m42.467s  + 3.184s  31
20.  Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth        1m42.993s  + 3.710s  30
21.  Glock        Virgin-Cosworth       1m43.811s  + 4.528s  14
22.  di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth       1m43.854s  + 4.571s  27
23.  Senna        HRT-Cosworth          1m44.095s  + 4.812s  24
24.  Chandhok     HRT-Cosworth          1m44.566s  + 5.283s  21

All timing unofficial